A Letter From Jail

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across

your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and

untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and

ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my

desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other

than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would

have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are

men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely

set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope

will be patient and reasonable terms.

I think I should indicate why I am here In Birmingham, since you

have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders

coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization

operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta,

Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across

the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for

Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and

financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the

affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in

a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary.

We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our

promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here

because I was invited here I am here because I have

organizational ties here.

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.

Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their

villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the

boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left

his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to

the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to

carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I

must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all

communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not

be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere

is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an

inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of

destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial

"outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United

States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its

bounds.

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But

your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar

concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.

I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the

superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with

effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is

unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham,

but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power

structure left the Negro community with no alternative.

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection

of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation;

self-purification; and direct action. We have gone through all of

these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact

that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is

probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United

States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes

have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There

have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in

Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the

hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions,

Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the

latter consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation.

Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders

of Birmingham's economic community. In the course of the

negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants --- for

example, to remove the stores humiliating racial signs. On the

basis of these promises, the Reverend